Microsoft Read Aloud for New Outlook

Anonymous
2023-11-02T20:08:09+00:00

I'm not seeing the "Read Aloud" option on the "New" version of Outlook. It's not under accessibility settings like the "old" Outlook. Seems like this feature was overlooked.

The instructions via support for "old" Outlook are here:

Anyone know if this is available in "New" Outlook?

Version

You have Microsoft Outlook Version 1.2023.1018.300 (Production).Client Version is 20231020006.20 .

Listen to your Outlook email messages - Microsoft Support

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-02-14T20:14:29+00:00

    I have reading fluency and immersive reader does not help with the type of reading fluency I have. In fact it makes it harder for me to aborb information that way I have to look away if I want to understand the text making it just better to have nothing. Please bring back read aloud without immersive reader.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-04-21T15:34:11+00:00

    Agree with the feedback here about it not working on drafts. That's must have functionality.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-01T09:59:29+00:00

    While I like the window dressing of the new outlook, that is a good as it gets. It is disappointing to find key features such as Read Aloud have been removed or are missing entirely. I am baffled as to why features available in the previous version hasn’t carried over. I would have expected a baseline checklist of popular and widely used features to be used as a benchmark before releasing a new version. Removing core tools that many users rely on daily makes the updated product feel like it wasn’t ready for prime time. Did the quality control for this software get outsourced to Boeing?

    This isn’t an isolated issue. Read Aloud is just one of several missing features I’ve encountered so far. Can you provide insight into why these omissions occurred, whether they’re being addressed, and when we can expect these features to return?

    Consistency and reliability are critical in professional software, and many users depend on tools like Read Aloud to perform their jobs efficiently. I hope Microsoft will take this feedback seriously and prioritize restoring full feature parity.

    Thank you!

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-15T10:23:48+00:00

    Immerse Reading was originally develop for children with read difficulties and is great for this, however compared the Read Aloud the user experience is much poorer and quite honestly an insult to intelligent adults. Immerse Reading use a separate app, is slow and a lot less accessible.

    This for me is a significant step back by Microsoft in supporting accessibility and Neurodiversity, something they have been really strong on in the last few years.
    I read somewhere they planning to bring it back to Outlook but still no sign of it as of May 2025.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-05-16T10:11:14+00:00

    I 100% agree the new one has gone backwards

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